was on the phone today reserving my pma permit and the rangersaid that she was busy all day writing down names for all thepma requests. she was wondering about all the sudden interest?so far today she has had 7 requests. sounds to me like thereare more crazy people out there than we realize

I'm sure the Backpacker magazine has a lot to do with it. When we picked up our PMA permit in August, the outfitter said his phone had rung dozens of times with PMA inquiries after it hit the stands.

When we hit Sundial in spring of '08, they had one handwritten page that had "May PMA Permits" on it. There were three entries. One was ours, & this was on the 28th or so.

I hope it's a passing fad! Though I suspect many will try it once & either (a) fall in love like we did or (b) swear off of them forever. If we'd done what we did this August for our first trip, I may have been in the latter camp.